LOS ANGELES, Nov 21, (Agencies): Rumer Willis is opening up about her emotions as she navigates her father Bruce Willis' battle with dementia. In a heartfelt Instagram post on Monday, the 35-year-old actress, followed by 1.1 million people, expressed the depth of her feelings as her father's condition continues to deteriorate.

In the caption accompanying a nostalgic photo of herself as a baby with her now 68-year-old father, Rumer wrote, "Really missing my papa today." The image captured a tender moment as Bruce held his young daughter in his arms, casting a fond gaze upon her.

While some commenters initially speculated about the Hollywood icon's passing, others connected the post to Bruce's dementia diagnosis, a condition characterized by the loss of memory, language, and other cognitive functions, as explained by the Alzheimer's Association. Bruce received this diagnosis last year, along with aphasia, a condition resulting in the inability to speak or understand speech, according to the Mayo Clinic. Frontotemporal dementia, the umbrella term for these disorders, primarily affects the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain.

Responding to Rumer's post, one person empathetically remarked, "Hugs. It’s an odd kind of hard to miss someone who is still here. Dementia is a cruel beast." Another expressed sympathy for anticipatory grief, acknowledging the difficulty of processing emotions before the physical loss occurs. A third person highlighted the prolonged and challenging nature of grief associated with dementia, stating, "With dementia, grief begins so much earlier and lasts longer because you start grieving the loss before they are physically gone."